Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) is a new European payment rule that kicks in on 14 September. Here's what it means for your conference.

Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) is intended to reduce fraud. So under the new rule, your delegates may need to complete an additional security step – like entering a PIN or a code sent to their phone – when paying your conference fees online.

The exact nature of this security step will be up to delegates’ banks. Some banks may send delegates a code via text message, for example, but others might want fingerprint verification.

Delegates may need to authenticate via PIN, phone or fingerprint

Next week, we’re releasing an update to our integration with payment gateways like Stripe. This means we’ll be able to handle this new security step, whichever form it takes.

European payment rules? But I’m not in Europe

If your conference is based outside Europe, these new payment rules may not apply. But any delegates coming from Europe (or paying via European bank accounts), may still need to complete this security step.

Okay, so what happens now?

Once SCA kicks in, delegates will have a shiny new screen to input their payment details, and one to complete their security step. Other than that, it’ll be business as usual.